2022 Customer Experience (CX) Trends

Customer experience (CX) has changed the game in marketing, as it encompasses the entire journey a customer receives from your brand. CX is the key differentiator, as customers now base their loyalty on the experience they receive, not the price or product. If CX is not your priority, it’s time for a shift in approach.

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Did you know that investing in CX initiatives has the potential to increase your revenue significantly? If you reduce customer churn (loss of customers) and nurture loyal followers, higher profits will follow. According to Gartner, 81% of companies expect to be competing mostly based on CX. If you haven’t already created a CX strategy, we will help you get started.

Steps to CX Success

Let’s look at the following methods of creating an effective customer experience ecosystem to support your most valued audience.

1. Omnichannel
   • Meeting the customer where they are at is key. Are they reaching out to you on chat or social? On your website or through your customer care center? Wherever they are, you should be too. And ensure that your customer has an effortless, consistent experience across all your available channels, as continuity makes a difference in a consumer’s overall impression of the brand.
2. Personalized Experience
   • Tailoring your customer support experience to the needs of each of your company’s personas helps customers feel like their issues have been anticipated and satisfactorily resolved.  A recent Salesforce study revealed 66% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. 52% of customers expect offers to always be personalized – and this number continues to rise. Utilize your data and insights to help craft viable methods of personalization.
3. Expansion & Growth of Customer Success Teams
   • Thanks to a global crisis, businesses have been expanding their customer support teams or building new ones to help keep their valuable customers and attract new ones. Keeping staff trained on the latest customer issues they are experiencing not only helps empower your agents to resolve problems quickly, but also assists in correcting production or systemic issues before they become a real problem for your business.
4. Chatbots, Self-Service, & 24/7 Service
   • These days, many customers are willing to figure out how to solve issues themselves. Creating reference resources helps, as does access to automated chat bots, which assist in getting customers to the right places for resolution. 24/7 availability to customer service agents is a big expectation of consumers now. They expect to have access to some sort of assistance at any time. And they expect help quickly. 44% of all online customers believe they should wait no longer than five minutes for an agent.
5. Mobile Experience
   • A frustrating mobile experience kills business. 70% of all internet traffic comes from mobile, and 54% of customers buy through their mobile phones on a regular basis. So, if your mobile experience is not optimized or responsive, has slow load times, or is difficult to search or navigate, it will negatively impact consumers. In fact, 52% of users claim that a poor mobile experience makes them less likely to engage with a company. Don’t set yourself up to lose customers. Make sure your mobile customer experience is equal to the ones they encounter everywhere else in your brand ecosystem.
6. Customer Appreciation
   • A great customer experience translates into brand loyalty. One way to increase retention and decrease churn is to offer special deals after a customer support interaction through loyalty programs. A satisfied customer is more open to trying a new product offering, according to recent research. 58% of consumers who have given a brand a high rating are “very likely” to try a new product or service. And 81% of millennials said loyalty programs prompt them to spend more with a company, with 78% continuing further by adding they would switch to another brand if their offering was better. Find ways to reward your customers for moving through your customer support experience successfully.

When your business chooses making customer experience a priority, the potential for higher levels of customer satisfaction and increased profits changes significantly – for the better. Take advantage of these trends to expand and elevate your customer experience and watch your business transform.